Novelist Roxana Robinson on the Marines: I Wanted to Get It Right

Q: Your novel Sparta won the James Webb Award for Distinguished Fiction given by the Marine Corp Heritage Foundation. The question is often asked the writer: who do you write for? In the special case of Sparta–which considers a soldier’s return from Iraq–is there particular satisfaction in the work being recognized by this audience of veterans? Did you have them in mind as you wrote?

A: When I decided to write a book about a Marine (or rather, when that idea took me over), I began to do research about a culture that is famously insular. I learned very quickly how guarded and protective this culture is – how “tribal,” as one Marine called it–and how deliberately and absolutely they exclude outsiders. At a professional level I was rebuffed, over and over. I realized that it would only be on a personal level, through direct encounters, and through word of mouth, that I would be able to talk to the people who so interested me. They did interest me. I was not just interested but fascinated by every part of the experience of being a soldier. I was deeply sympathetic, but that wasn’t a reason for them to talk to me. I might get it very wrong, regardless of sympathy. No one knows what a novelist is up to, and I couldn’t explain it exactly myself. There was no reason for people to trust me.

Which is why I was humbled by the trust I did receive, when I reached people individually. I listened to their stories, and heard their voices and watched their faces, and the faces of their wives and children. I was enthralled by this narrative, and grateful to have the opportunity to learn it. While I was writing the story I was always conscious of how much I owed them, for their trust. I was also aware of what a risk I was taking, in telling a story that was not my own, about an experience that’s guarded so jealously by those who do own it. I knew that all my sympathy to veterans wouldn’t matter to them if I got the story wrong. I wanted to get it right for them. They had trusted me, and I didn’t want them to regret it. When I had finished, I approached the publication of Sparta with great trepidation, not knowing how it would be received by that most important of all audiences, the veterans. So there is hardly a greater possible honor to have received than one from the Marines themselves. Of course, in Sparta, I haven’t told everyone’s story, no one could do that. But I’ve told a story that veterans recognize as one of theirs, and it’s one they have honored. I couldn’t feel more proud.

Q: Your novel Sparta won the James Webb Award for Distinguished Fiction given by the Marine Corp Heritage Foundation. The question is often asked the writer: who do you write for? In the special case of Sparta–which considers a soldier’s return from Iraq–is there particular satisfaction in the work being recognized by this audience of veterans? Did you have...